NamesCon purchased by WorldHostingDays

Sizable hosting conference now owns biggest domain name conference.

World Hosting Days, a conference for the webhosting industry, has purchased the domain name industry’s flagship conference NamesCon.

Soeren von Varchmin, GM for World Hosting Days, disclosed the news in a YouTube video (embedded below).

NamesCon was founded by Richard Lau, with the help of Jothan Frakes, in 2013. It quickly became the biggest conference focused on domain name investment.

Although the news comes as a bit of a surprise, the move makes sense.

First, both NamesCon and WHD focus on getting as many people in the door at low admission prices and then getting sponsors to fund the conference. At least for its two U.S. conferences so far, WHD has offered many people free admission and subsidized hotels.

Second, the overlap between the hosting/cloud business and domain business is growing. I’ve attended both WHD events that have taken place in the U.S., and the domain name industry is well represented.

WHD’s biggest conference takes place in Germany each year. It has struggled in its entry to the U.S. market, so NamesCon ought to help with this.

WHD.usa 2017 will also be in Las Vegas.

We can expect to see a lot more hosting firms present at NamesCon in January.

(Hat tip: Michele)